Half Square Triangle quilt complete

It is done. This light dark HST quilt has taken a while to eventuate, but I am definitely happy with the result. The perfectionist in me can spy a few not-quite-perfect intersections. I have realised though that even quilts in fancy quilting books are not perfect and it is the overall impression that is what makes a quilt.

A plain teeny weeny dotty back shows the quilting lines

The detail on the HST Quilt in the making is here.

Finished size with binding about 41x57" (104x155). Backing - single piece. 

10 columns x 14 rows of HST (140 squares once made up = 70 light & 70 dark 5"charm squares).

Finished size of each square in quilt = 4",

Log Cabin Quilt

Another finished quilt, this time for a friend,  using up my last pieces of the bright and fun Moda Bungle Jungle fabric, along with some owl and spotty prints.

This is my first try at a log cabin pattern and I went for the 'modern' method of cutting first & measuring later. I like the fun of piecing different colours and fabrics together to gradually built up each layer of the logs.

Each block is 12"finished, with the middle block's final round of logs being the same colour as the sashing so as to look a bit different from the rest.
The middle square of each log cabin is somewhere between 2.5"-3.5", and the surrounding logs anywhere from 1"-3" wide. Most of the block are made up of 3 rounds of logs, but a few have 4 rounds.

Quilting wise I stitched around each centre square and the first lot of logs about 1/8" outside the seam line and then stitched in the ditch around each block.

The back was supposed to be a red spotty fabric, but after washing it many times & it still running I gave that idea up. So a blue spot it ended up being instead, with a line of owls to tie it into the front. I like how the quilting worked on the back, symmetry  with the outlining of each of the 12" blocks but then a bit of unevenness with the smaller squares inside each block.

All wrapped up and ready for delivery:)

Here are my other quilts using the Moda Bungle Jungle fabric line. They have all turned out so differently.
A floating blocks design
and a more traditionally style one.

Bungle Jungle plus elephants quilt is finished

The Bungle Jungle Pieced quilt is finished. My first ‘commission’! 

They chose the pattern, I adjusted the size and layout slightly to fit what we needed. The finished size of 41” x 58” is a bit bigger than a standard baby quilt and that is because there are going to be two babies in this instance – twins are on the way!

They provided the initial red and blue fabrics and wanted a quilt for the babies that included elephants but wasn’t too “baby”.  The patterned and elephant Moda Bungle Jungle prints I had in my stash worked in really well with what they had already selected.The size of the blocks are 7.5” square when finished and the internal grey sashing is 1” finished.

And this is how it turned out.

The back was a single piece of patterned fabric which worked out perfectly – I sized the quilt so that the width matched the backing, so no cutting /seams required.

I tried a few new things. Cotton batting instead of polyester…and I am not sure I will be going back to polyester . The cotton was sooooooooo much easier to quilt.

I also left the “Button” (sewing) room to do the quilting this time around. I love my Button room, but the space on the dining room table is so much clearer for manoeuvring while quilting, so this is the new Quilting Venue from here on in. This is how I set myself up:

I also worked out that to get a proper 1/4" seam I need to move my needle a few stops over to the right using the settings on my machine. I used a quilters ruler to measure and mark a line on my machine using blue painters tape to further assist keeping to a nice even quarter inch.

Here is another, very different Bungle Jungle Moda print quilt of mine

Bungle Jungle quilt ... and a chicken!

My first 'comissioned' quilt! For lovers of elephants and the colour red. They decided on a pieced squares and rectangles design and this is how things have progressed. It started with their chosen elephant & floral prints  and I've added in some of the elephants, polka dots and bright coloured prints from some of my stash of Bungle Jungle Moda fabric range. A little larger than what I would usually make for a baby quilt - because this one will be for twins! 

the first finished 'big-square' block

a growing collection of big-square blocks and little-square blocks

playing with the layout of all the completed blocks

But wait, what's this! A Chicken in my Button (sewing) Room??!!

Luckily she didn't make it any further than this as I literally flew across the room to shoo her out. Will have to be a whole lot more careful about shutting the door now that the chickens are free ranging!! (She clucked that the quilt is looking good though!)

Half Square Triangle cushion covers - all done!

Part 2 of the making my half square triangle cushion covers. Once again I experimented with the turquoise cushion cover first…so this means the purple one should be mistake free … in theory! 

The front of the cushion I finished off like a mini quilt without the binding before making this into a full cushion cover.

For the 'mini quilt':

I used leftover sheeting scraps as the backing for the mini cushion quilt and a few smaller pieces of batting lined up alongside each other. 

backing fabric taped to floor & first piece of batting laid over this (I didn’t bother stitching the batting pieces together for such a small project)

 Then, as for any other quilt, place the top fabric on, pin through all 3 layers....

...and quilt away.  As I decided not to take the quilting all the way to the edge of the cover, I also used a long straight stitch to baste close to the edge of the cover to hold backing, batting and top layer neatly together.

Trim away excess batting & backing.

For the cushion backing:

My cushion measured 22” square.

Cut 2 rectangles of fabric 22” x 16”. Square these up well as they will then help square off the quilted front.

Take one rectangle (A) and along the short edge turn over ½ inch, press and then turn over another ½-1” and press again to hide the raw edge. Stitch to hold in place.

For the second rectangle (B), again turn over and iron approx 1/2” along the short edge. Then, turn over another 3” (or a little more) and press again. I didn’t stitch this second seam for this cushion, but I will next time.

Piece (A) with raw edge hidden and stitched in approx 1” seam. Piece (B) with ironed first seam and arrow pointing the (open) pressed 3” line

To assemble the cushion cover:
Place the quilted piece face up. Place backing piece B right side down as shown, matching raw edges to quilted piece (or placing squarely over top of quilted piece if the quilted piece isn’t properly square) and pin together.

 

Lay backing piece A right side down, overlapping where the cushion insert opening will be, and lining up with backing piece B where they overlap to keep square. Pin.

Sew front to back around all four edges, reinforcing at opening (where piece A & B overlap).

Trim excess batting etc and clip corners before turning right side out....

...and stuffing.

Crazy Nine Patch Quilt

Before I left for Cambodia I managed to finish off another baby quilt. Having a deadline helped that along - it needed to get to Melbourne & Husband was headed there just after I returned.

I started off by selecting the 9 fabrics to make up the crazy nine patch squares. The pattern & how to make these can be found at Oh, Fransson!

The end size of the crazy 9-patch blocks was dictated by the fact some of the initial squares were from a layer cake & therefore only 10 x 10 inches. Just having 9 smallish crazy blocks floating on the quilt top didn't look good, so then came all the umming and aahing as I played around with different designs & combinations...until...drum roll...
The plan was that it would look something like this. Kind of.

First up I strip joined rows of 9-patch blocks together like so:

 And so:

...to end up with one big 3x3 crazy block.

I also fussy cut the nine 2.5 x 2.5 inch squares from the animal print fabric that were also going to go on the quilt front. I use a clear plastic template I've made to work out where to cut (the inner line on the template shows where the seam line will end up.

Or line up my quilting ruler using the template on top

I find one of the easiest ways for me to work out which bit of quilt to join together first is to chalk out the edges on my sewing room floor & then place out where I want things & measure in between to work out what sizes I need to cut, and how things will end up piecing together. Here I have the finished big block & am working out the spaces between the fussy cut animal squares, the big square and the quilt edges.

I ended up deciding a pop of purple was needed between the small animal squares, So this is what I did next, strip joining the 2 rows of animals with the purple. Now the floor begins to resemble the rantings of a crazy woman - numbers and symbols scrawled everywhere!

There is method in my madness (for me anyway!) & slowly the other sections of fabric are cut and joined together in order:

The Quilt back.
I had a big strip of the animal print left, so wanted to use as much of that as I could.
A small square managed to use up some more of the turquoise, grey & green scribble (Bungle Jungle) prints and broke up the solid teal green.
The binding I was using was another piece from the lovely gift of a huge bag of scraps I received a few years ago. Not quite big enough to make it all the way around I added in some of the yellow polka dot scraps I had left. This I decided would tie in with the yellow scrap I used on the back of the quit.
Here are the quilt back pieces before they were all joined together:

The quilt sandwich was compiled & then I began to play around with how I might quilt. I liked the notion of random lines, reflecting the 'crazy' lines in the 9-patch squares.

Two things I couldn't find the answer to on the internet.
1. How do you plan the pinning around such a  random quilting plan without having to remove & re pin pins the whole time you quilt?
2. Where do you start so you minimise bunching/puckering? I know it should be working from the middle outwards & I could do a few main lines that fitted that, but then what!?

This was in part my own answer - I lay wool 'lines' out over the quilt in a rough pattern I was happy with & tried to pin around these lines.

And then used painters tape to mark the line before quilting.

It kind of worked - but there was still a whole lot of pin moving...and a bit of unpicking of puckers where some of the quilted lines intersected. Not too much though.

 Quilt sandwich finished & trimmed down, I then added the binding, making sure to position the yellow section in the one corner to match the yellow on the quilt back. I use metal hair clips now to hold the binding in place - you can buy special (expensive) quilting clips, but the ones I bought from the $2 shop seem to do the trick for me!

Hopefully there is enough quilting to hold it all together for the years of use ahead!